


roots

by bookhobbit



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Autism, Autistic Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-09
Updated: 2014-08-09
Packaged: 2018-02-12 12:19:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2109690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookhobbit/pseuds/bookhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Enterprise, no matter what letter, has always been the kind of ship where you can put down roots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	roots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kuolettava (salainen)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salainen/gifts).



> So I ended up pinch-hitting and here we are. I really hope you like it, kuolettava (salainen)!

Starfleet always has been where Geordi has belongs, but it takes him a while to find a place that's _his_. The Enterprise turns out to be that place and, really, he shouldn't be surprised. It's a ship with a reputation, and part of that reputation is how special it is. But still... 

Geordi is a true Starfleet brat. He spent half his childhood bouncing between parents, not because they were divorced but because they were on separate assignments, so he's had plenty of experiencing in having to re-make home wherever you go. Starfleet machinery, taking it apart and piecing it back together, has always been part of that. So it makes sense that where he feels most at home is in the engine room of a starship, but he's not quite expecting this new engine room to take hold of him so quickly.

Like, for instance, the Hood was okay. Geordi had an all right time of it there, and he wouldn't have missed it. For a start, that's where he met Will Riker, and even though they weren't friends then, that was the foundation for their future friendship.

But other than that, it had been lonely. His transfer from the Victory had been good for his career, but on the Victory he'd had a group, and he had missed them. 

So when his transfer orders for the Enterprise come in, he's not exactly sad. He thinks he can make some good friends there, and he's especially excited for all the new ship tech that he's going to get to be involved with. The Enterprise is a brand new ship, hot out of the oven as it were, and he's looking forward to seeing what design changes have been incorporated into it. He spends half the night after he receives the order reading through the ship's blueprints and trying to get a feel for what sort of ship she'll be.

Maybe that's a little bit over the top, but he's a hands-on kind of guy when possible. His parents tell him they knew he was destined to be a mechanic, because he was taking his toys apart and figuring out how they went back together before he was talking. He wouldn't play with them, just figure out how they ticked. He supposes that was an early clue that he was autistic, but mostly it just goes to show that exploration and experimentation and, basically, tinkering, has always been important to him when dealing with machines.

It's Captain Picard's appreciation of that quality which eventually landed him here, and he's always figured that's why it works out so well. Plus, there's something about Captain Picard that's special, as far as captains go. 

Geordi's never worked under an officer who was autistic. Before Picard he was starting to wonder if there were any, or if maybe he was the only one in Starfleet. Unlikely, but he never really got to know any of the others here, somehow. There's something freeing about watching him drum his fingers during board meetings and knowing that Geordi can do the same and not be looked down on as unprofessional. About knowing that his captain probably understands when he's awkwardly fumbling his way through a speech because his words have just not been behaving today. Sure, Starfleet has nondiscriminatory policies and all that, but that's an entirely different matter from working, personally, with a captain who actually has personal insider knowledge of what you are experiencing. 

Probably that's part of why Captain Picard appreciates his hands-on approach; because he understands. Geordi likes to think that being autistic indirectly helped him get the job aboard the Enterprise, although he's not sure if it's true or not. It's the reverse of how things usually work, and is therefore refreshing. It's nice to know someone sees beyond your awkwardness and appreciates your diligence and efforts.

Also, Captain Picard promotes him to Chief Engineer pretty quickly, and that's another factor. Geordi's never got to be in charge of an engine room before, and it's kind of like owning your own place compared to renting an apartment. It's not that he's the only person there, or that his are the only opinions that matter, or even that he's really that high-ranking; there are still senior officers and they still get a major say in what he can and can't do.

But the Enterprise's engines get to be Geordi's field, the thing he knows the most about. And he's a senior officer now that he's chief engineer which means a lot more stress but also, a lot more knowing what's going on, and that makes him feel part of it in a way he never did even on the Victory. Sure, he's dealing with life-threatening events on a weekly basis, but he knows exactly what's going on during them. Or, well, as exactly as anyone else does.

And then there's the people.

The weekly officer's poker games, for instance, which gather into a single room most of the people he's closest to on this ship. Even on the Victory he doesn't remember ever feeling quite so part of everything. His growing friendships with the senior staff, the fact that these are the people he's regularly helping save the ship, gives him a sense of purpose as well as community, and that's comforting. 

Their team works like a well-oiled machine, and just like a machine, interacting with the different parts of it give him a much better sense of what they're going to do together. It's an experimental approach to working together, the same way he repairs the Enterprise's computer.

And then of course there's Data, an element of the team machine who is, in fact, a literal machine. Which is fascinating, by the way, and Geordi knows enough to ignore the occasional muttering from peers that he made friends an android because he's better with machines than people.

He worries that Data will be hurt, though, because it's sort of true; he _is_ better with machines than people, because you can take machines apart to see how they tick. Doing the same with people would be bad news, to say the least. Except Data, because Geordi does most of the maintenance Data can't do for himself; Geordi knows Data inside and out and, okay, maybe the mutterers aren't all wrong but they aren't all right either.

Data asks him sometimes about being autistic. Geordi tells him, and finds a lot of parallels in their experiences. He strongly suspects that Data is not so much emotionless as alexithymic, unable to identify his own emotions and put words to them. And Data's grasp of social skills certainly reminds him of issues that he's had. So maybe he doesn't understand Data because he's poked around in his guts, so much as he understands Data because in some ways they've had similar experiences.

So, that's an important part of it too, having a best friend. He hasn't had a best friend in ages and he doesn't realize how much it matters until Bruce Maddox shows up that one time, trying to take Data away. It's then that he realizes Data is a big part of belonging to this ship, at least as Geordi experiences it. If he left, this place would be just a little bit colder, just a little bit more distant.

Geordi is a flexible person, used to bouncing from place to place, and he's adapted his routines to make them easy to keep up with even in a strange new place. He's dealt with leaving or being left by so many friends he's grown almost resigned to it, but something about the Enterprise fastens him down tight. Something about the Enterprise reminds him of how much he cares about people, makes him feel connected to everyone, part of a team in ways he hasn't been in years, and accepted in ways he's never really felt accepted.

After so many years of home being where he makes it, he finally, finally has roots.


End file.
